Crash victim with head injuries in critical condition

A woman driving a black Nissan had three fellow Auckland women with her when the vehicle and a Toyota ute collided at the intersection of McLaren Falls Rd and SH29. Photo / Andrew Warner

A 29-year-old woman who suffered serious head injuries after a two-vehicle crash in the Kaimai Range remains in critical condition in Waikato Hospital.

The Auckland woman was driving a black Nissan and had three other Auckland women - aged 23, 24 and 26 - in the vehicle when it and a Toyota ute collided at the intersection of McLaren Falls Rd and SH29 on Sunday.

The three Nissan passengers were taken to Tauranga Hospital.

The women aged 24 and 26 had been discharged but the 23-year-old remained in hospital in a stable condition as at 5pm yesterday, hospital communication adviser James Fuller said.

A witness reported that one of the three passengers in the Nissan was flung from the vehicle and lay unconscious on the road.

Police said it was believed she was not wearing a seat belt.

A Waikato Hospital emergency-department doctor stuck in the traffic queue tended to the woman. The doctor is yet to be identified.

Senior Sergeant Ian Campion said he had no information about the women's movements before the crash or where they were heading at the time.

The ute driver suffered minor injuries. The crash caused major traffic congestion.

Mr Campion said the accident's exact cause was still being investigated but road works being carried out on the western side of the intersection were not a contributing factor.

Meanwhile, the State Highway 2, Whakamarama, crash which killed 23-year-old Nathan Luc Alain Boucher from Reze in France at 5.35pm on February 27 was still being investigated.

Mr Boucher, who had been living in Tauranga since late last year and was on his way home, swerved to avoid a portable toilet which had fallen from a light truck, before his car and a 49-tonne truck and trailer unit collided.

Mr Campion said the driver of the light truck had been spoken to but it was too early to say whether charges would be laid.

The coroner's office and French Embassy had been liaising with Mr Boucher's family, he said.